This article draws attention to the fundamental shift taking place within most Western cultures: North America and Europe are now viewed as a mission field, This shift is requiring churches to make substantial adjustments in both their self-understanding and their ministries. The implications of this shift for the church—from having a church-shaped mission to being a mission-shaped church—is explored.

Polemics on the mission field may be entirely lacking today, and this article explains why this is so. It then provides biblical guidance in our language of polemics.